Chapter 1 The Black Mage Returns to Earth
"On September 1, 2019, I remember that the sun in Anshi was so bright that it was hard to open your eyes..."
"Wait, wait." The young woman raised her hand expressionlessly to stop him. "Although you are talking about dates with a look of nostalgia for the distant past, today is only September 2, 19."
The middle-aged man with a stubble face and melancholy eyes said solemnly: "For you, it was just yesterday, but for me, it was already three hundred years ago."
The woman took a deep breath, with veins popping out on her forehead and neck. She clenched her teeth and clenched her fists, as if she was trying her best to control her anger. "Okay... From yesterday to today is equal to three hundred years for you, so what?"
The melancholy bearded man suddenly became excited: "So - sister, I am your brother Yang Qiu! That afternoon you sent me to buy groceries and took my computer to play games. I got angry and went straight to the Internet cafe to play. As a result, when I went home after playing until midnight, I suddenly traveled through time and was thrown into a particularly dark and terrible magical world for three hundred years! I finally got back with great difficulty..."
“Get out—!!”
With two consecutive "bangs" and "clangs", the main door and security door of Room 3-2 were slammed shut, leaving only a melancholy bearded man who called himself Yang Qiu standing alone in the corridor.
"Listen to my explanation, sister. I am really Yang Qiu!" The melancholy bearded man had to knock on the door again. "Your name is Yang Ying, and our mother's name is Ni Keping. It's been three hundred years, but I still remember you clearly--!"
There was no sound from inside the door, but the door of Room 3-1 next door opened, and an old lady who looked quite strange but vaguely familiar stared blankly at the bearded man in the corridor.
The aunt slowly closed the door.
The door was locked, and the melancholy bearded man heard the nervous voice of an old lady from inside the door: "Old man, what's the phone number of Qingshan Mental Hospital? There's a madman from the Yang family next door banging on the door..."
The melancholy bearded man, Yang Qiu, left the Redwood community where he had lived for sixteen years in a lonely manner.
Yang Qiu, with his stubbled beard and greasy hair, had been to another world and back again. At this moment, he was still wearing the clothes he brought back from another world:
He wore a beige long-sleeved turtleneck shirt, a vest of the same color, black magic pattern cloth trousers, deerskin boots on his feet, a black hooded cloak on his body, and a delicate staff as long as his forearm in his hand.
When he walked out of the community, two high school students who had just returned from school looked at him in surprise. One of them whispered, "You're still doing COS at such an old age? Who is this COS?"
Yang Qiu turned his head and stared at the two high school students, his eyes mainly focused on the blue and white sports uniforms they were wearing.
Three hundred years... One day ago on Earth, he traveled through time wearing this school uniform. That warm and thick autumn school uniform accompanied him through the difficult first years...
"Ugh!" The two high school students felt uncomfortable with his gaze and ran away hand in hand in disgust.
Yang Qiu didn't care at all that he was considered a pervert. He watched them walk away with a longing look in his eyes until they were out of sight.
That wasn't the girl who ran away, that was the carefree youth he had lost...
Hongshan Community is in a good location. Walking 200 meters from the community, you can reach the pedestrian street in Anshi Commercial District. With the popularity of the pedestrian street, many stores have opened on both sides of the narrow alley. There is also a long vegetable stall at the corner. Some elderly people in the community like to buy vegetables here nearby.
The popularity of the alley cannot be compared with that of the pedestrian street, but it is not deserted either. Yang Qiu stood at the entrance of the community for a while, and at least a dozen people coming and going stared at his costume that seemed to be a COS of the black magician.
Fortunately, in this era, the streets are full of people wearing Hanfu, Lolita skirts, and COS, with all kinds of strange costumes, so Yang Qiu's outfit was not too unusual.
When a middle-aged couple walked past Yang Qiu into the community, the woman said to her husband: "This COS is really professional, is it the League of Legends character you play?"
The man only glanced at Yang Qiu, then turned back and stared at Yang Qiu: "It seems... No way, no hero has this look."
Yang Qiu lowered his head and left quickly.
Half an hour later.
Penniless and homeless, Yang Qiu sat alone on a bench in the northwest corner of the central square of Tashan Park, facing the flower bed, with a thoughtful look on his face.
"I can't feel any magic at all. Is it true that there is no magic on Earth..."
He raised his right hand and drew a casting rune gesture smoothly in the air. The wizard's hand, which he could normally move at will and even did not need a casting gesture, could not be summoned.
After thinking about it, Yang Qiu took out the dragon bone staff.
With a light wave of the staff in his hand, a translucent hand about half a person's height, invisible to the naked eye, suddenly appeared in the void.
But... the wizard's hand that was successfully summoned only lasted for half a second before it ran out of power and disintegrated.
"The battle before I crossed over drained all my magic power, and I haven't had time to recover yet..." Yang Qiu exhaled lightly, "My magic power is almost gone, and I've lost my identity as 'Yang Qiu' on Earth..."
Although the situation was a bit difficult, Yang Qiu's expression did not seem to be very solemn, he even looked a little relaxed - so what if he had no identity, surviving on Earth was definitely much easier than that damn magical world!
Why did Yang Qiu, who had struggled for three hundred years to become a high-level black magician with a certain ability to protect himself, rush in without caring about anything when he saw the rift in time and space?
In addition to the fact that he felt the familiar fluctuations of time and space in this sudden crack, the most important reason was that he had been hunted down by those lunatics of the Inquisition for decades!
Even when he hid in the dimensional demon world to live a miserable life, there were still some lunatics who followed him and attacked him...
Isn't it just that he killed a few cardinals and prophets of the Holy Land because he saw injustice? What a huge grudge!
"At least on Earth, we don't have to worry about whether a lunatic will throw an alchemical bomb into the toilet."
Taking a relaxing breath of peaceful air, Yang Qiu took off his overly eye-catching black cloak, looked around to see that there was no one around, and put the cloak and the equally conspicuous dragon bone staff into the space ring.
Without the cape and staff, the beige elf cloth turtleneck shirt, vest of the same color and black magic pattern trousers are not very conspicuous. Of course, people can't delve into its material...
"I was so excited when I got back that I was anxious to go home and see what was going on... Yang Ying would definitely not recognize me in this state. Well, I'll find another opportunity later. I've managed to get through all these years, so there's no need to rush."
Yang Qiu yawned, lay down on the park bench, and soon began to snore... He hadn't slept well for a long time before he was lucky enough to encounter a space-time rift with familiar spatial fluctuations. He was hunted down by the madmen of the Inquisition.
He slept until it was completely dark. The colorful street lights and neon signs inside and outside the park competed with each other for brightness. Yang Qiu was then awakened by the deafening sound of classic square dance music.
I stretched and sat up, and found that someone had put two big buns in a plastic bag and a bottle of mineral water under the bench.
"It's great to be back on Earth." Yang Qiu sincerely thanked the unknown kind-hearted person, tore open the plastic bag, and wolfed down the cold steamed buns... Before he came back, he was chased by the madman from the Inquisition and had to run deep into the Monster Forest. It has been a long time since he had eaten normal food!
I don’t know if it was because the way he ate the cold steamed buns was too shocking, but two 996 office workers who had just got off work took one look at him and stopped.
The two female office workers looked at each other and saw sympathy in each other's eyes. One of them with long hair walked over silently and put the midnight snack she bought near the park square on the bench where Yang Qiu was sitting.
"Is it for me?" Yang Qiu was shocked when he smelled the spicy aroma coming from the packed midnight snack.
The long-haired girl was startled by him and quickly nodded while backing away.
"Thank you, thank you, young lady. You are a beautiful and kind person!" Yang Qiu swallowed the last half of the cold bun in one gulp and tore the packaging bag with a ferocious look on his face.
The short-haired female office worker stepped forward, grabbed her companion's wrist, and urged him in a low voice: "Let's go."
The two left in a hurry.
The two female office workers finally breathed a sigh of relief when they walked out to the northwest corner of the park, where there were fewer people and it was even quieter at night.
"You are too impulsive. That guy is tall and strong with all his limbs intact, but you think he is a homeless person in the park. He might have mental problems. What if he gets excited and hurts you?" The short-haired girl complained in a low voice.
"I think it's quite pitiful... Never mind." The long-haired girl said with a pale face, "Don't say that. If it weren't for something that happened, who would want to fall to this point?"
"Hey, these days normal people can earn enough to carry bricks to feed themselves, who would sleep on the street for no reason? Look at the homeless people in the news, they are either mentally ill and forgetful, or fugitives." The short-haired girl disagreed, "If you see Bu Luoren, it's better to put the food far away and let him get it himself, rather than taking the risk of delivering it to him."
"I know, I know..."
On the other side, Yang Qiu, who had eaten spicy hot pot again after 300 years, licked the plastic fast food box clean without missing a single pepper or oil drop...
"Earth is still the best!" Yang Qiu, moved to tears, put the clean plastic lunch box into his space ring.
Then he realized something was wrong...
"Damn it! On Earth, plastic containers are just white trash, there's no need to collect them. I'm toxic!"
Muttering something with a frown on his face, Yang Qiu took out the plastic lunch box again.
As a black magician, he was doing pretty poorly. His space ring was only ten cubic meters in size, and it was filled with miscellaneous items... bedding, clothes, and daily necessities accounted for the majority, and the rest were Warcraft materials collected during his escape, broken herbs, and so on. Only a small leather bag was left for the spellcasting materials.
"Huh?"
When taking out the plastic lunch box, Yang Qiu discovered that there was an extra white ball in the space ring.
How much does a poor guy value his own wealth? He can even remember clearly whether there is one more or one less leaf of a herb. Yang Qiu is sure that there is absolutely no such thing in his asset list.
Yang Qiu took out the white ball in confusion.
It is an ordinary stone ball, the size of a fist. It looks a bit rough but feels smooth to the touch.
"Where did this thing come from...F*ck!"
Yang Qiu discovered that the ball was actually absorbing the little magic power left in his body through the contact surface of his palm, and he subconsciously wanted to throw the ball away.
Unfortunately, it’s too late…
With a whoosh, Yang Qiu disappeared in an instant.
All that was left on the park bench was a plastic fast food container that had been licked clean.
